and in each of the three years 1886 to 1888 the number considerably exceeded one hundred thousand. The branch of agriculture mostly pursued by these immigrants is not tillage, as in the northern region of European immigration, but the rearing of live stock (chiefly sheep and cattle). Tillage, however, is receiving greater attention, especially in the agricultural colonies, which have been planted in large numbers since 1856, principally along the banks of the Parana; and the result of this is seen in the rising export of wheat and maize. The cultivation of maize is not at present nearly so extensive as the climate of the settled districts admits of, which is chiefly due to the want of a market for the produce; but there is reason to believe that its cultivation might be profitably stimulated by the establishment of the "pork-packing" industry on the same basis as in the United States.
The chief export is wool. The natural facilities for inland commerce afforded by the Paraguay and lower Parana have been mentioned; and here it may be added sea-going vessels can ascend the Parana to Rosario, that the Parana is likewise navigable for steamers above the confluence of the Paraguay as far as the limit of the Argentine frontier, that steamers can ascend the Uruguay River on the eastern frontier as far as the falls which occur in about 31½° south (at the Urugayan town of Salto), and that sea-going vessels of fourteen or fifteen feet draught can reach as high as the Uruguayan town of Paysandu. The Pilcomayo, on the northern frontier, is navigable for two hundred and forty miles, and the Rio Negro in the north of Patagonia affords three hundred miles of navigation through a region deemed a few years ago scarcely fit for settlement, but which is now being rapidly stocked and settled along the whole course of the river. Patagonia, the territory south of the Rio Negro, is mainly a stony desert, but recent explorations have shown that it embraces a considerable amount of fertile land along the base of the Andes. On the coast of this territory there has long been a Welsh colony at Chubut, in latitude 43°, where, among other things, wheat is grown.
As in the United States, railways are being rapidly extended to promote the commerce on which the immigration depends. The Argentine Republic is the part of South America in which railway construction has been, and still is, most active. There are projects for no less than three railways across the Andes into Chili. Of these the farthest advanced is the continuation of the railway from Buenos Ayres to Mendoza across the Uspallata Pass.
The capital of the republic is Buenos Ayres, which stands on the River Plate, and is at the same time the chief seaport, carrying on about one third of the shipping of the republic. This proportion would probably be larger if it were not for the defective-
